23 August 2008

Have you ever wondered how Lord Darzi does his share of running the country and his ward rounds at the same time? The answer is here. He does his ward round remotely with a robot. Do you think he examines his patients with a robotic probe? Is it cold? Or maybe prewarmed? What do the patients think? Is there an iwantgreatrobots.org? Were we all born too soon? Or is this the beginning of something bad? Who knows?

Posted by
Dr Grumble

6 comments:

I watched the programme SuperDoctors when it was shown the other evening, and noted that Robert Winston was fairly careful with his words. I don't believe that he was convinced that however busy Lord Darzi was with all his responsibilities that htis was really the way that a surgeon should be dealing with his patients.

The thing that struck me most forcefully about this part of the programme was that it was certainly not the way that I would want to be treated. I know that hospitals are never the most private of places, but in my experience I have always been seen after surgery behind closed curtains, and with conversations carried out in hushed voices. So much for patient confidentiality when a loud-mouthed robot is the one having the conversation. But I shouldn't be surprised, should I? There seems to be no problem with letting the world have access to confidential information as far as this government is concerned, so as a government minister Lord Darzi is only doing what seems to be the norm. No matter how good a surgeon he may be, I would not want him operating on me. I prefer someone who is more interested in the patient, than trying to make a name for himself.

I have always been seen after surgery behind closed curtains.***********But that is not really good enough is it, Madsadgirl? As you say, hospitals are never the most private of places. But they should be.

Managers are blaming staff for not respecting patient's dignity and privacy but the ward infrastructure which requires 'hushed voices behind closed curtains' makes privacy a charade. As usual it is managers that are to blame for the lack of privacy and as usual the smokescreen they put up is to blame the coalface staff and introduce new policies such as the red peg thing.